Grand Prix Final wrap up: Chan playing catch-up, Canadian pairs take silver, Weaver and Poje 'in the zone'

Three-time world figure skating champion Patrick Chan learned some hard lessons this week at the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, Spain: In the year since he has been away on skating tours, his competitors have rushed past him.

Chan finished fourth overall after a powerful free skate, but couldn’t come close to catching Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, who shattered all world records that he had already shattered two weeks previously at a qualifying event in Japan.

Chan, who defeated Hanyu at Skate Canada International in Lethbridge, Alta., last month, finished with 263.45 points, better than his Skate Canada score. But Hanyu broke the 300-barrier for the second time in two weeks. His final tally was 330.43, topping his previous record by about 10 points. His free skate score alone was 219.48. Chan’s was 192.84.

Chan intended to do two quads in his free skate, but he managed one, albeit a quadruple-triple that he did with power and strength. Hanyu did three quads with remarkable ease. Reigning world champion Javier Fernandez of Spain, took the silver medal with 292.95 points and three quads. A young Chinese skater, Boyang Jin, who ended fifth, attempted four quads. And 17-year-old Shoma Uno of Japan won the bronze medal (276.79 points) ahead of Chan with two quads.

Chan was third in the free skate, but couldn’t overcome his dismal short program to Mack the Knife. In the short program, Chan tripled his quad, and then lost all scores for a triple jump combination deemed invalid because he had repeated a jump.

“I felt a lot of anger at myself…frustration and also like giving up,” Chan said. “Thinking I’ll just leave and go home….Up to the point where they announced my name [for the free skate], I didn’t want to be here. That’s natural with how my days have been going here.” Chan says he’s been excessively nervous . He has had shaky practices all week. He doesn’t know whether to blame his mindset, the ice, or jet lag. “I also have to remind myself that it’s my first year back,” he said. When he returned, he hadn’t bargained for the stress that comes with competition, he added.

 While Chan was struggling, reigning world silver medalists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje won the ice dancing gold medal by a very comfortable 5.11 points over Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates. While the Canadians had 182.66 points, Chock and Bates earned 177.55. Bronze medalists were former world champions Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy with 176.37 points, although they finished second in the free dance, ahead of the Americans who flubbed a twizzle, a travelling spin.   

In pair skating, world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford were upstaged by Olympic silver medalists Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, who took the gold after the Canadians stepped out of a throw triple Lutz. Duhamel and Radford did land a throw quad Salchow to take the silver medal with 216.67 points, 12.77 behind the Russians.

Two Canadians finished within the top four, as first-time seniors Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau came fourth of seven, behind bronze medalists Yuka Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia.

Weaver and Poje have now won two consecutive Grand Prix Finals, and their performance to “The Bitter Earth” was a step up from what they did at Cup of Russia in November. “I think we felt in the zone,” Weaver said. “We were missing some emotion in Russia and that’s exactly what we injected in this performance. And we skated with our hearts out there.”

They still have room to improve, they say. “We want to be unbeatable,” Weaver said. “To do that is a never-ending process.” They will return home to work on more elements before the Canadian championships in Halifax in January and the world championships in Boston in March.

Duhamel and Radford were only third after the pair short program and it took them by surprise. “It’s been a long time we’ve been in this position that we weren’t leading after the short,” Duhamel said. “This is the first time in over a year and a half. But it’s a position that I think we thrive under and made us fight today.”

She said she felt an aggressive attack has been missing all season form her mindset. One day, talking to husband/coach Bruno Marcotte, Duhamel said: “I just feel a little blah. I don’t really know what I’m pushing for.”

She and Radford found it in Barcelona. “I think competing against the best teams all on the same ice probably helped that,” she said. “And it’s still early in the season. I felt really proud that we were able to get our mindset back. All day long, the way I felt today, I was pretty certain we’d have a good performance.”

Duhamel and Radford were third in the short program after she fell from a throw triple Lutz. However, Radford said, the difficulties they’ve had from that throw this week have come from their pursuit of trying to master a throw quad Lutz, which has never been landed in competition. They set the throw quad Lutz aside for this week, but Radford says they feel caught in between the techniques for both throws: learning a quad affects the timing on the triple.

However, they intend to still work on the throw quad Lutz, and perhaps have it ready for the Canadian championships. “Now we have a big chunk of time to train…and nationals would be a great test event to see how it’s feeling,” he said. After the national championships, they will make a further decision about whether to include it at Four Continents Championships and the world championships.

Evgenia Medvedeva, only 16, of Russia, won the women’s event with 222.54 points, almost 14 points over tiny 17-year-old Japanese skater Satoko Miyahara. Russian Elena Radionova, 16, of Russia won the bronze medal. It’s a youngster’s world, it seems. Mao Asada, a 25-year-old Olympic silver medalist, finished sixth of six after stepping out of a triple Axel. She was the only skater who attempted the 3 ½-rotation jump.

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